Rare bird

Flight Journal, Oct 1999 by Carlson, Tina

California's Camarillo Airport is home base to the last operational, fully equipped, Lockheed Constellation EC-121-T Warning Star. Only five Constellations in the world are able to rise into the sky today, and four of them are transport planes.

In 1994, Wayne Jones, president of the Global Aeronautical Foundation, discovered the 1953 Constellation at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

The Cold War surveillance plane, with its long-range radar and photography equipment intact, was delivered to the salvage yard in 1978 but escaped the welder's torch while hundreds of other planes became scrap metal.

Its salvation may have been its last mission, which remains top secret, but this much is known: the long-range spy plane was reconditioned by the Air Force in 1979 and flown for 70 hours. Mission complete, the warbird was wrapped up and forgotten for 15 years.

Volunteers work through the winter to prepare the Constellation for its circuit of Southern Califomia airshows, which are critical to raising money for maintenance (it costs $4,000 an hour to fly).

The Foundation is a nonprofit flying museum in need of funding and volunteers. Contact Wayne Jones, P.O. Box 2617, Camarillo, CA 93011; (805) 529-1748.